Creative Entrepreneurship

As many of you know, I’m taking a Masters in Creative Entrepreneurship. Most people don’t know what this is, but it’s becoming very relevant in today’s ‘Big Society’. This is the time for the Artist to step up, embrace their role in society. Artists are relevant during a recession. They brighten things up, provide colour and vibrance, and through that, hope.

They also are the only people who stand to make any money during our dry economic times, and this is due to innovation and adaptability. There will always be writers and artists and musicians, just as there will always be accountants and businessmen and bank managers. But one group of people work within a recognised structure. They get up and go to work, and yes, they worry about whether they’ll be fired, but the job that they do won’t change. The other group have to make that structure they work within. Find their jobs, and if there is no market for them, create a market for themselves.

So is creative entrepreneurship just creative business? No, it’s a form of survival. Business entrepreneurship is about making capital. Social entrepreneurship is about making change happen. Creative entrepreneurship is simply about making.

So that’s what I’m up to right now. I’m making stuff. And I’m making a space for it in the marketplace. My workshop plans are coming along nicely, my Cafe idea has made a large jump nearer reality (thanks to the excellent advice of ex-local authority Arts Officer Wendy Lockwood).

The writing, however, the true defining point of me as an Artist? Well, I should be off doing that instead of writing this.